1896.] BATHAOniANS OF TUB MALAY PESINSTTLA. 909 



" Bull-frog " by the English iu Siiigiipore, and detested for the 

 noise it makes at night. These rotund animals were common 

 about Tauglin, and coukl be heard croaking in March and April 

 (probably in other months also) every night after a rainy day. 

 Their voice is very loud and can be heard from some distance ; 

 the croalc is a deep guttural " wau-auhhhhk," very strident and 

 prolonged. The males croak while floating on the surface of the 

 water, the mouth, head, and inflated aides of the body jnst above 

 the surface, the single vocal sac under the mouth inflated like a 

 globe and the arms and legs extended. They can hop well on 

 land, and are good swimmers. The males are easily caught, their 

 voice betraying their position in the dark, but 1 only obtained one 

 female. Their skin is excessively slimy; when handled the slime 

 comes off profusely, and dries into a sort of white gum, with a 

 faint aromatic smell, not unpleasant. This gum dissolves in hot- 

 water, and coagulates in cold. 



The general appearance of these Frogs is very stout, their girth 

 being about twice the length from snout to vent. As observed by 

 Cantor (p. 144), the profile from the snout to the vent forms a 

 considerable arch, the highest part being the centre of the back. 

 As Cantor also observes, " The toes are more slender than the 

 fingers, and their last joint, although flattened, is not so broad as 

 that of the fingers, which is of a somewhat triangular form, 

 truncated in front." The tongue, which is oblong in a spirit- 

 specimen, in life is very elastic, assuming when extended a vermi- 

 form shape and reaching about 40 mm. in length ; this is probably 

 for feedhig on ants, as Stoliczka (J. A. S. B. 1870, p. 155) says of 

 this species near Moulmein, " It appeared after sunset .... crawling 

 on old wood and feeding on white ants." 



The pupil is round. 



Coloration (from life, April 1896). — Top and sides of head yellow- 

 ochre, shading to brown on the nose, and a brown band runs from 

 the nose to below the eye, beneath the eye it turns dark brown, and 

 in the vertical of the posterior margin of the eye or slightly further 

 back ends abruptly. The upper lip is yellow-ochre. The back is a 

 rich dark brown, divided distinctly from the yellow of the face by a 

 narrow black line, from eye to eye ; the upper part of the promi- 

 nence over the eye being parti-coloured. In the female specimen 

 there were tenor twelve irregular yellowish spots on the back, and 

 a very faint narrow black vertical line. A broad very distinct band 

 of yellow-ochre nins from the eyelid to the inset of the hind leg, 

 with a more or less scolloped outline and bordered above with black, 

 also iu some specimens bordered below anteriorly viitb black. The 

 sides of the belly are more or less mottled with yellow and brown. 

 The lower surfaces are dirty buff. The chin and throat in the 

 jnale are black, and the vocal sac, when collapsed, shows as loose 

 longitudinal folds of black skin under the chin. The limbs are 

 grey, mottled \^•ith dark brown, and with more or less distinct 

 patches of yellow-ochre, sometimes on the hind legs outlined with 

 black. The intensity of the colouring varies with individuals and 



